June 6, 2017
DearMayorRothschild and City Council members -
I am writing you to express our Chamber's concern regarding Agenda item #9 from tonight's Regular Agenda - a resolution condemning the Presidential Executive Order 13767 (which proposes the construction of a physical wall along the U.S Mexico Border).
While we support the analysis of the "cost and effectiveness" and potential relationship-damaging consequences of building such a Wall, we are concerned about the punitive tone the resolution has directed towards our local businesses.
The Tucson Hispanic Chamber strongly opposes the "identification and divestment" of businesses that work on the design, construction or financing of a Border Wall. This is extreme and potentially illegal.
We have many members of our chamber and in our business community who currently work on federal procurement contracts. The tone of this resolution creates an assumption that if they were to create a component part, advise on design or provide technical skills or labor to build the Wall, they would not be able to receive future City procurement contracts.
We respectfully ask that the language pertaining to businesses be stricken from the resolution. We support the City of Tucson's right to proclaim and oppose actions at the State and Federal level, and hope you will consider the economic and financial impact to families in Tucson and Pima County whose livelihoods depend on the success of local business.
Sincerely,
Lea Marquez Peterson
Representing the 1800 member businesses in the Tucson Hispanic Chamber, Sierra Vista Hispanic Chamber, Douglas Hispanic Chamber and Ambos Nogales Hispanic Chamber
June 7, 2017
DearMayorand Council
Our chamber as well as several of our Board members expressed our concern to you yesterday about the impact to local businesses in Tucson related to your Resolution opposing the Wall.
While many of us also oppose the construction of the Wall and see it as reputation damaging and a waste of taxpayer money, I thought it important to communicate to you how disappointing this process was.
We learned of the Resolution yesterday morning. We communicated to you via email immediately in the morning and stressed our strong objection to section 4 of the Resolution - that spoke of "identifying and divesting" of companies that worked on the Wall. This was a startling and alarming section of the Resolution.
With such an extreme statement, I would have preferred a communication from one of your offices on this ambiguous wording. We have since received a note from theMayorand Councilman Kozachik after the vote which stated that it did not impact Tucson procurement practices. Certainly a simple memo to our chamber explaining your intent and the purpose would have eliminated the stress and time business owners have spent discussing and analyzing your actions on social media and via email. We still do not know the facts of the Resolution nor the affect on our business community. This process lent itself to the "non-business friendly" environment we have tried to overcome in the City of Tucson.
We lack communication with ourMayorand Council. The County regularly sends memos to the business groups in the City related to issues impacting our businesses. I recommend that theMayorand Council do the same to eliminate such miscommunication.
I am happy to meet to discuss how to better communicate with our business community if you would like.
--
LeaMárquezPeterson, MBA, IOM
President/CEO
Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
and affiliate chambers in Sierra Vista, Ambos Nogales and Douglas
P(520) 620-0005
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